Seattle Production History
PRODUCTION
|
YEARS
PERFORMED
(Click on year to see cast list) |
| Cox and Box |
1968,
1985 |
| Trial by Jury |
1963, 1967,
1973, 1987,
2002 |
| The Sorcerer |
1973,
1987,
2002 |
| H.M.S. Pinafore |
1958,
1961,
1963, 1969, 1976, 1985,
1996,
2004 |
| The Pirates of Penzance |
1956,
1960,
1968,
1978,
1989,
1998,
2006 |
| Patience |
1959,
1962,
1969,
1980,
1993,
2005 |
| Iolanthe |
1957,
1961,
1972,
1984,
1997 |
| Princess Ida |
1971, 1990,
2007 |
| The Mikado |
1955, 1959,
1964, 1970,
1979, 1986,
1994, 2001 |
| Ruddygore |
1959,
1966,
1981,
1995 |
| The Yeomen of the Guard |
1962,
1975, 1988,
2000 |
| The Gondoliers |
1965,
1974,
1983,
1992,
2003 |
| Utopia Limited |
1977, 1991 |
| The Grand Duke |
1982, 1999 |
| Engaged |
1967 |
| Pineapple Poll |
2004 |
A little about our history:
The Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society was
founded in 1954 by John and Leslie Andrews. Like most amateur societies, ours started by
rehearsing in church basements, renting costumes, and performing in high school
auditoriums to piano accompaniment. A few hundred dollars left over for "seed
money" for the next year meant the conclusion of a highly successful season.
Upon the untimely death of John Andrews, a young man by the name of
Gordon G. Gutteridge literally stepped out of the chorus and offered to take charge of the
badly traumatized theatrical group. Gordon proceeded to instill a sense of discipline and
professionalism into the group and insisted that they move their performances to a real
professional theater, the Seattle Center Playhouse. At the time of this radical move, the
company had a total of $21.88 in the bank! Gordon lent the Society enough for the deposit
on the theater. He has since been reimbursed.
Our performance in Buxton in 1996 marked the culmination of Gordon's
34th year as Artistic Director. He, and his wife Marianne, our Production Manager,
announced their retirement at the end of that season.
Upon their retirement, Mike Storie took over as Producer of the
Society. He re-aligned the artistic staff slightly and established an artistic management
system with a Stage Director and the Music Director as co-equals.
Over the past four decades, the Society has experienced the normal
ups and downs but has continued to grow artistically. After some early experimentation, we
have settled into producing one Gilbert & Sullivan opera each summer for a three-week
run. Our members put literally tens of thousands of hours into each production.
We have mounted full scale productions of all thirteen of the
existing G&S operas (plus Cox & Box) on a rotating basis. In 1967, we performed
the world premiere (West of Connecticut) of Engaged, and, that same season, acquired a new
Music Director, Alan Lund. Alan has just completed his 30th season with us. Alan
immediately recruited an amateur orchestra to replace the pianos and today our 26-piece
band is an integral part of the Society.
The Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society has survived and
flourished almost entirely on box office receipts and member contributions and today we
are fortunate to have over 1,000 contributing members. Within our ranks, we are proud to
count over 40 individuals who have been involved with the production of all thirteen
G&S operas with our Society. At one opera per year this is a tremendous amount of
involvement. These individuals are awarded the "Order of the Loose Canon," and
over half of them are still actively involved with the company.
We are very pleased that we are able to bring reasonably-priced
high-quality family entertainment to people in the Puget Sound area. Our audience comes
from all parts of the country, and last year we entertained an audience of over 10,000 for
the first time in our history, and we hope they had as much fun as we did. In a favorite
review of one of our recent shows, a Seattle-area paper stated: "It is evident that
those on stage and those in the audience are having a thumping good time, and isn't that
what a G&S production is all about?"
visitors since 5-10-03
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